I tip 10% for trying and getting edible food to me, +5% for excellent service, +5% for friendly demeanor that makes me feel welcome, +5% for being hot. Friends get a flat 30% (though most of my friends who were wait staff/bartenders have moved on these days).
You really have to work hard at pissing me off to get less than 10%, but I'm not embarrassed to leave a penny tip when earned, and have (loudly) lectured a waiter that his customers should not have to go run the tap in the men's room to get a drink refilled.
We had a waiter at Clancy's, a place I loved, that sucked. He took a credit card but then didn't run it and returned it to us (so he was an ass AND he didn't care about getting paid). We went to the manager after waiting 15 more minutes and explained the situation and the manager ran the card for us. We left without tipping.
I usually tip 15-20%, although I will tip lower if the service sucked.
I always suck at figuring out how/if to tip other people. When I get my hair cut at Borics, I usually go with $3-4 dollars on the $15 cut, and if I get food delivered, I'll give them $3-5.
IcompletelyON, today was fun! I went to a friend's house to see the town's July 4th parade (a day late, but it worked out better for the weather--yesterday was a constant drizzle, today was sunny and 80 degrees!). I hadn't been to a parade in decades, and had a blast.
All the standards of a town parade were there: the politicians, the police and fire fighters (lots of fire engines of varying vintages), horse troops and antique cars, school bands and smaller local troops, including a kids drum-and-bugle corps, the Great Lakes Naval Station band who were excellent. Also, the local karate and taikwondo groups were marching (one had little balsa wood planks the watching kids could punch and break, with the help of the kids holding the wood, I'm sure!), as were all the local pageant girls (Miss [town's name], Junior Miss [TN], Little Junior Miss [TN], and Tiny Miss [TN]), and the soccer group had a giant soccer ball kids could kick into a giant net at the back of a car (one of the boys in our group nailed the kick and got a little trophy).
I waved my little flag and drank the free water they passed out, and enjoyed the peach carnation I got from the local florist (who handed out flowers to all the adult ladies watching), and had fun picking up candy that was overthrown past the kids' heads.
Oh, and my friend has the sweetest daughter! The last time I saw her was three years ago and she was 4 going on 5. Today, she not only said "Hi!!' very cheerily, she came over and gave me a big hug not five minutes after I walked in the door! I asked L (friend's wife) why she was so terrific to me when I was sure she barely remembered me, and she said that they had been going through some family photos not too long ago and I was in several of them from her baby shower and other get togethers, so she knew who I was. I was completely charmed by her!!!
Lucky you! Loki wants to try everything, despite me giving him nothing voluntarily since I got him. Past owner let him eat off her plate/fork/whatever. He doesn't forget easily, even with a walnut brain.
Perkins the cat still remembers what drawer the treats I haven't given in in over three years were kept.
I tip 10% for mediocre service, 20% for good service and 25% if the kids make a mess and 30% for outstanding service. If I have cash on me, I try to always tip with cash, even if I pay the check with a credit card.
Interesting article on Chow.com, crazy crazy person. I found myself reading with a kind of carcrash fascination for a while, until somebody replied to RantyMcRantypants thus:
O.k. so having ben someone who has worked both front and back of the house I am very disturbed by the comments made by old springsy here. Obviously you are either black or you order a steak well done and ask for ketchup...
...and nobody else who was commenting seemed to be thrown by this? WTF?
wrt the whole tipping thing - I gather waiters get less than $3.00 an hour in the US? (A quick Google implies it's around $9.00 an hour in the UK.) And, yeah, I totally grok why people DO do the big tipping thing - but, seriously, isn't there any way that people can change this bullshit slave labour rule, and make the employers PAY THE WAITERS A LIVING WAGE? Like they do elsewhere on the planet? I mean - it just seems so weird to me, that there's this whole huge service industry where people basically
don't get paid by their employers,
and everyone colludes with this, and just sucks it up and makes up for it with tips. Why doesn't anyone change the legislation to make it into a normal job with a living wage?
Because, Fay, that's dangerously close to being logical.
